U.S. stresses Al Qaeda threat

Ashcroft says new recording signals `war' is not over

WASHINGTON — Following the release of a new tape said to be from Al Qaeda, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft warned Sunday of a "very real potential" for attack by Osama bin Laden's terrorism network.

"They want to strike us whenever and wherever they can," Ashcroft said on "Fox News Sunday."

While not saying the tape was authentic, Ashcroft told ABC's "This Week" that it "signals to us that the war is still under way, that Al Qaeda still has the same intentions toward the United States that it did when it unleashed its savage attack" on Sept. 11, 2001.

The recording, broadcast Sunday, vows that the United States "will pay dearly" if it harms detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The voice purportedly is that of bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

According to the tape, the threat was a response to Washington's announcement that it will start putting the detainees on military trials that could result in death sentences.

"The potential for us to be hit again is a very real potential," Ashcroft said.

Over the weekend, the State and Homeland Security Departments suspended visa rules for most foreigners traveling through the United States between foreign airports. They now will be required to have visas for connecting flights.

Ashcroft said these actions add a layer of security, and he insisted that he thinks it is safe to fly. He said U.S. officials have disrupted more than 100 planned attacks worldwide since Sept. 11, 2001.

In another anti-terrorism step, Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said Sunday that his agency will have representatives in Saudi Arabia "by the end of this month" to more closely monitor the granting of visas for travel to the United States. Fifteen of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudis.

"We're not going to replace the State Department officials and the consular affairs officials in Saudi Arabia," Ridge said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We will add additional bodies to that screening process."

Earlier, Ridge had said the United States suspended the visa program based on "a very specific piece of intelligence that talked about terrorists exploiting this particular vulnerability."

Ridge's remarks came as the Saudi man wanted for questioning by U.S. officials about his links to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers said he is ready to talk, but only in his homeland and in the presence of Saudi officials.

In his first interview since his name was raised in a U.S. congressional report that questioned Saudi Arabia's commitment to the war on terror, Omar Al-Bayoumi told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television Sunday that he had done nothing wrong.

"I am ready to sit with American investigators, whether from the FBI or the CIA, in the presence of Saudi investigators and on Saudi land," he said.

Al-Bayoumi said he wrote to the Saudi interior minister, Prince Nayef, telling him that he was ready for questioning.

The Saudi government said last week that it had authorized FBI and CIA agents in Saudi Arabia to question Al-Bayoumi after the congressional report recounted findings that he befriended and helped two of the hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, who helped crash an airliner into the Pentagon.

In the interview, Al-Bayoumi said claims that he aided the two shortly after they arrived in the United States were "pure fabrication."

"People or forces who have vested interests in trying to tarnish the image of the kingdom" were behind the report, he said.

The report said the three met in Los Angeles, and Almihdhar and Alhazmi later moved into the same San Diego housing complex where Al-Bayoumi lived. The Saudi government has urged Washington to publish classified sections of the congressional report, saying they cannot otherwise respond to the allegations.